Charting the Next 50 years of Leadership Development

Following the 50th anniversary of its alliance, on May 23, 2014, the Harvard-IESE Committee initiates the next half-century of knowledge exchange and reflection on the future of management education.

Returning to Boston, the city that hosted the committee’s first meeting in 1963, this year members will discuss the latest topics in business education including trends in MBA programs, and how course development and case writing is evolving with technology.

The agenda will also cover the impact of new methodologies, joint programs and faculty development. The HBS faculty expected to participate in the meeting are Srikant M. Datar, W. Carl Kester and Richard H.K. Vietor. Dean Jordi Canals and Professors José L. Nueno, Joan E. Ricart and Eric Weber will participate on behalf of IESE.

The Harvard-IESE Committee has not only been an important discussion forum for leadership development for the last fifty years, but also a cornerstone in IESE history. "Practically all of the expansion and innovation projects at IESE have been discussed at the committee," observes Professor Pedro Nueno, who was a member of the HBS-IESE Committee from 1977 to 1998. Moreover, the committee is in many ways responsible for a major milestone in European business school history: the creation of the first two-year MBA program on this side of the Atlantic.

Just as it had a key role in getting management education in Europe off the ground five decades ago, today the committee continues to have a vital role in analyzing key business and education trends, and developing programs capable of producing outstanding leadership. According to Harvard’s Srikant Datar, "In a world where things are changing, there will be different demands, pulls and pressures, more conflicts, less authority…leadership needs much more reflection and the ability to engage others."

Today Harvard and IESE continue to come together "to improve management and leadership development around the world," says Jordi Canals. In addition, the two schools are continuing their tradition of developing joint programs such as the "Global CEO Program for China" which is offered in conjunction with CEIBS, and the Short Focused Program, "Value Creation for Effective Boards."

The impact of its fifty-year history is documented in a commemorative site including interviews with Harvard Business School Dean Nohria, Professor Jay W. Lorsch and IESE’s Pedro Nueno and Julia Prats. As the alliance enters its second half-century, the school’s shared values and goals continue to leave an imprint on management education.